AIDS: Can the Internet Help Combat the Global Epidemic?

AIDS…with its prominence in American media and culture—from Tom Hank’s Oscar-winning performance in Philadelphia to Bono’s advocacy efforts, from the Broadway smash Rent to Angels in America—I was astounded at the lack of personal and institutional/organizational blogs dedicated to the disease on the global scale.  Finding a post here or there on a newspaper or publication’s blog doesn’t prove that difficult a task, but finding sites that look at AIDS’ ripple effect…its devastation—medically, emotionally, financially—is no cakewalk.   

 

There are a couple of ways to think about this.  I guess originally I thought that because AIDS reaches epidemic numbers in South Africa and India, the Internet and blog coverage would be much more than you find here.  But, then I have to put this in perspective.  The United States remains a wealthy, privileged country.  Many of the people dedicated to the cause here have the resources to write blog about their experiences.  In Africa and Asia, from what I can tell reading The After-Death Room, the circumstances are completely different, with much less access to education and medical care…needless to say, blogging doesn’t factor in as a priority for many.

Themi's AIDS Diary profiles the life and activism of a young South African woman living with the disease. Her story has been on aired on NPR, CNN, and MTV, but her straight forwardness and earnesty resonate and leave an definite impact. She now travels around the world learning and teaching, hearing others' stories and telling hers. She wrote last October:

India, is a very complicated country. They have the highest rate of HIV in Asia, a lot of kids are living in the street, there is lack of employment and it has been hit hard by gender problems. So, I didn't think that women would be active in the way they are--especially because of the gender problems.

But when I got there, there were girls that had run away from their homes--their villages-to come to town to work on HIV/AIDS. They are HIV/AIDS activists. Some of them are positive and are teaching people to speak out about AIDS. The part that amazed me the most was that I have never heard of a project that is teaching people to speak out about AIDS.

I have never heard of it!

And it was a wonderful thing to see that these women go door to door and encourage people to speak out. Those young women really inspired me. Their passion for life, even if they are infected with HIV.

The most important thing that I learned is that I pitied myself that I lived in a poor community, but I see that even if I lived inaa shack, I still had a bed to sleep on and food to eat. In India, life for infected people is much harder. You will see an entire family--mother, father children, living on the street. When a person is down like that, it is very difficult to bring them up.

When I think that my story was acknowledged and helped people in those situations...Well, it is something that  I can't even explain. Some people even made different choices after hearing my story. Some of the women have had abortions more than two times because of their status, but once I went there they actually gave it a chance to have a baby that would be negative.

Another important thing I learned from the people in these communities, especially the women, is to never let a situation put you down. It made me realize that you don't need money to do certain things. If you have your hands, you have your mouth, you have your brain, then you can just speak.

Writers of a variety of backgrounds contribute to the Black Looks blog, a site that addresses problems affecting African women.  Creator Sokari Ekine wanted to write about "a range of issues that I have experienced directly or indirectly in my offline life such as gender violence, racism, sexuality, HIV/AIDS and cancer."  

Ekine views "the world as moving further and further to the right with American hegemony contaminating the global space" and she wanted "to write from a radical and progressive standpoint challenging not only the right but also the liberal community, the so capitalism with a friendly face which is an oxymoron to say the least."

The posts articulately comment on the AIDS crisis from different viewpoints, illuminating discrepancies in media coverage, misinformation and cultural barriers.  Ekine blogs:

I was attracted enough by the title of an AllAfrica.com article to resolve to read it. The title read: “Uganda: Africans Can Overcome HIV/Aids.” I wanted to know how we could do so. If Uganda can do it, then Lesotho can, also, I reasoned. Lesotho has one of the highest rates in the world. I went home this year after 7 years away, and found many of my friends gone, compromised to AIDS and the folly surrounding it.

But I was quickly disappointed by the article, even if it spoke some truths that I would agree with. Shunning promiscuity is one of those. But the author also says things like, “since the condom is about safe sex and safe sinning,” it cannot be Jesus’ approach. Now, I don’t know if it would be Jesus’ approach — my worry lies in the fact that the author thinks condoms are for sinning.

Condoms are for safe sex that should be had by any couple if one of the partners is infected. We must remember that infection does not equal sinning, and that infected people should not be stigmatised like it has been done before. There are many ways to catch a virus. And even if someone catches the HIV virus by fornicating, sinning, cheating their spouse, our job is to help them, not to hurl Biblical verses at them, not to cast the first stone. That’s what Jesus said to the mob that wanted to stone that woman accused of whoring, right? Who are we to pass judgement?

This is just a more gerneral AIDS blog, mainted by an American ( I think) but he/she inlcudes a lot of interesting news, thoughts and stories.

 

I found this post on the Warshooter blog about AIDS in Asia....the post's powerful images speak for themselves and will haunt you, so make sure you're emotionally ready (if anyone ever can be) before you look at this.